9-year-old pulls father to shore when he saw him drowning in Beaufort Co., police say

A 9-year-old boy watched as his father struggled with a rising tide and fishing net Sunday at the Huspah Creek Bridge in Lobeco, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report.

It was the start of a series of events that would bring his father to nearly drowning. The man remains in a regional hospital in intensive care, according to the report.

His fishing net was stuck, and the man tried to moveit in different directions to pull it free, the report says. All of a sudden, the water was too deep, and his father doesn’t know how to swim, the child told police.

“When his dad stopped moving, he jumped in the water and swam to his dad and pulled him back to the shore, but he was too heavy for him to get out of the water,” the report says.

The child left his father to flag down passing cars for help.

A pair of siblings had just arrived at the bridge to fish when they heard a child screaming for help across the road. They found the child’s father laying face down in the water at the shoreline.

Another man traveling south on US-17 toward Sheldon stopped when he saw the child waving his arms on the bridge.

One of the siblings and the passer-by pulled the father out of the water. It didn’t appear the man was breathing to the witnesses. The pair started doing CPR on the man.

“After several compressions, the male coughed up some water and began breathing on his own,” the report says. “However, he did not regain consciousness. They turned the man on the side so he would not choke.”

The passer-by drove to Sheldon Fire Department to get help. He then returned to the scene and assisted EMS with bringing the man up the bank to the ambulance.

The father remained unconscious, with limited vitals, during the transport, the report says.

As of Monday, medical staff said the father’s prognosis was still undetermined, the report says.